Latest Fieldnotes

Finally!!!! After driving past this site lord only knows how many times and making a hundred promises to myself to visit, I finally made it on Saturday. Inspired by a certain Dr Burl, who we had just witnessed giving a rather humourous talk in Penrith about Cumbrian stone circles, we jumped in the car and headed out, mapless but determined. Fortunately, Dom has a great sense of direction and I had vague memories of having checked out the route when I had planned to visit previously and we found Gunnerwell Farm without too many u-turns!

We parked on the road and walked down to the farm – I don’t know whether the farm was ever sold but if it was, the new owners seem as friendly and welcoming as the previous ones. We did see the stone standing in the field outside the house but weren’t sure whether this was just one of those cheeky old glacial erratics which manage to get everyhere round this bit of Cumbria.

From the farm, you just go through the gate and follow the field straight down – access is easy and no longer do you need to take your life in your hands and climb over dangerous walls. Jane will be pleased!

The M6 wasn’t too busy and it was a stunningly beautiful day so we pottered around for some time – Dom mentioned the resemblance to Croft Moraig and I have to admit, it is equally as “messy” – it looks as if 2 groups of peope were trying to out-do each other and it just ended up as one big stone-fest! There are a couple of those lovely pink stones you find at Kemp Howe and Gamelands too which looked fab in the sunshine. Perversley, you actually get a better sense of this circle as you drive by on the M6 than when you are stood in the centre of it, so we climbed up to the top of the field to look down and see it is all of its glory.

A fabulous site to visit after being so inspired by Dr Burl and a good way to end the day. Bliss.

Visited on 28/4/07. Found 5 panels in total though I believe there are a couple of dozen more at least. The fields with all the outcrops are divided up and there were lambs in the largest so I didn’t venture in there.

If you are planning on visiting, please make it your business to ask first as the landowners are fed up with people wandering in. They have also put up a ‘Trespassers will be prosecuted’ sign. It was also the first time I’ve been asked about insurance but luckily I had my photographers insurance cert with me.

Apart from the three obvious panels on the high outcrop with bushes on it, I found two other panels, one had a cup and two half rings and what looked very like a scaled down ormaig-alike rosette. The other had a single cup with two rings. I’d love to see a plan of the panels so I could see which ones I missed. If someone had told me I would one day spend a Saturday night literally standing in a field staring at outcrops maybe I would have specialised in photographing bar stool designs manufactured from 1998 to 2005.

I’ve been at Mount Venus twice before and both times have left feeling puzzled. The massive capstone lies against a single large upright and there has always been precious little else to see due to a riot of vegetation. Doubts persist in the literature as to whether the capstone was ever fully raised or if this was a project begun and then abandoned, a bridge too far so to speak.

I stopped by the tomb today to see if I could clear up some of this confusion for myself. I had hoped that the growth was not as bad as usual given the time of year. I was even optimistic that someone might have cleared around the tomb as the last time I was here somebody had cut the elder tree at the tomb’s north end. No such luck, but the new year’s growth was only just taking hold and I was able to get a much better view of the monument after a half hour’s toil. Brambles, hawthorn, nettles and holly; my unprotected hands are showing the signs.

One of the problems I have in describing this tomb is that I don’t know the front from the back, where the supposed portal was, was there ever a doorstone etc. I’ve always thought of the front of the tomb as being the sloping capstone, the east side/end. I’ll use that as a guide.

I had never seen the stone at the front of this image megalithomania.com/show/image/5326 before. I was able to uncover it today. It’s almost 4 metres long by a metre wide and looks to have been dressed. What it’s purpose was, what part of the structure it belonged to, is beyond me. At the south end of the tomb is a stone with similarities to the one that remains standing. Did this once prop up the south end? I didn’t get a good look at it as I had had my fill of bashing brambles back for today.

Right in the centre of the stones is a large hawthorn tree with a parasitic holly tree at its side. A modern pit has been dug around the tree and is filled with plastic and glass bottles. I wondered why this site doesn’t have an official fógra beside it. A little time and a chainsaw would expose more of the monument and aid us in knowing a little more about what went on here back in the neolithic. There is more to find out from a survey of the site. I was left feeling slightly less puzzled when I took my leave. I’ll be back... with a machete!

A really nice day to be here, I asked at the farm for permission and the lady let me park there too, a short 5 minute walk and there we have them two quite well preserved long cairns but they are being eaten away by trees and those damn sheep. The field was empty when I got there but the farmer soon showed up with a large flock of sheep, he came over and asked me what I thought of them (the cairns not the sheep)and we talked at legnth about the ancient world , evolution and the future of mankind, nice bloke for a farmer.
Both cairns have almost intact chambers they almost reminded me of Carneddau Hengwm in N. Wales, this place had me entranced, even with the sheep (do we really need sheep anymore how much mutton or lamb do you eat? do you wear many woolen clothes? get rid of ’ em all I say)

Above the B4348 looking down into the aptly named Golden valley is cross lodge, I parked half way up the hill and walked towards two houses but on arrival they turned out to be empty farm buildings but luckily the farmer turned up on his quad and was only too happy to let me go have a look he even gave me directions . Inbetween the buildings and barrow stop and have alook at the hollow old oak tree, well impressive.
The barrow sits comfortably in the corner of a field with two Ash trees growing out of its southern end, on top of the barrow are a few large stones but they don’t look insitu because they’re aren’t stuck in just resting on top from on top we can see the original extent of the barrow which has been badly ploughed.Looking at the map the barrow is part of an alignment with Arthurs stone and in the middle the line skims the western rampart of Dorstone hillfort, probably fotuitous because there are a few more sites looking down into the valley which aren’t in line.
I could have stayed here for ages but was getting plagued by loads of flying black bugs.
A really beautiful place.

It took ages to find this longcairn mostly because of the long pipe filled dirt track which i presume will soon become a gas line from some far off no where, but just for today it was quite and all was well with the world . The warmest April since records began it was a warm and clear day, the barrow when I found it was covered in bluebells and when i tried to sit on a log a rabbit shot out of hiding and I nearly had a baby.
There are quite a few stones protuding above ground but only one big one, the barrow isn’t on the hilltop which is only 80 yards away, if not for the big mature tree we would have splendid views to the mountains,
Mynydd Troed and Twmpa.

Easily seen from the A470 and room to park at the entrance to Llangbed hotel, two fields from the road in the warmest April for 300 years even at 7 am it was a pleasure to walk to.
Badly leaning to the west this stone could be 8-9 ft tall if stood upright
a very nice menhir guarded by hoards of sheep bleating too loudly (for a tresspasser anyway)

One of the most pleasant walks up hill to any stone I’ve been to, following a small stream in a bluebell carpeted wood I kept sitting down just to make the journey last longer.
Two fields above the lane overlooking the River Wye this stone is nigh on eight feet tall, a nice colour and has great views to the east

A search of Keys to the Past, the Northumberland & Durham archaeology site, for other rock art in the Ray-Sunniside area produced two possibilities. One of these looked quite interesting: ‘Iron Age defended settlement and Neolithic cup marked stone on Great Wanney Crag (Kirkwhelpington). The crag is certainly an impressive place, regularly used by climbers and a good viewpoint. Despite its view of the Simonside Hills to the NE, I couldn’t onvince myself that the cups and grooves on rocks at the crag edge were anything other than those produced by natural erosion. Perhaps there are some that started as artificial carving but it would be difficult to tell now. Maybe another visit in better light or more optimistic mood would show something up.
The second record, this site, certainly lived up to its description and there’s certainly no reason to suspect that the cups here are anything other than artificial carvings. Hawick Farm is situated to the E of Sweethope Loughs about 2.5km S of Ray-Sunniside. The cup-marked panel is in a field close to a footpath some 200m E of the farm and lies on the E side of a grassy mound, partially turf covered (possibly a cairn?). 8 cup-marks were exposed, the largest 10cm diameter, the others about 5cm and between 2 and 3cm deep. I resisted the temptation to take anything more than a restrained peak under the edges of the covering vegetation and this only revealed some smaller cups. The horizontal rock surface appears to be partly rounded but its overall extent is hidden.
The surrounding land is gently rolling, improved pasture, mainly given over to sheep. The map shows enclosures and a tumulus two fields to the NE in the direction toward the deserted medieval village of West Whelpington.

The views up here are amazing. I would suspect that this may have been some kind of passage-grave at one stage. The view to the setting sun is fantastic over some low hills in cork and to the east is the sea around youghal.
I would think that the rising sun coming up out of the sea here would have been amazing. So if there was a passage perhaps it was aligned to a sun-rise. All just conjecture of course.
Also this cairn has great views into the mountains of Tipp/Waterford to the north.

This stone row has 2 large stones and 1 smaller stump. The highest is about 1.25m high. Unusually the axis of the row is aligned north-south.
It is easy to get to from the road. It is down a quiet cul-de-sac. I parked opposite a new stone house and then walked thru two fields to get to it.
Some of the foresty plantation have been cut recently and open some views to the west but nothing too significant.

This standing stone is pretty mathom about 2.2m high by about 1.5m wide.
It is set with great views of the Tipp/Waterford Hills. It looks like a fairly average stone but the edge or narrowest side looking towards the hills is all gnarled and interesting looking.
It is just behind a new house at the edge of a foresty plantation and access to it is easy.

No sign of this standing stone on Slievecorran. There is a huge slab of granite lying in the corner of one of the fields near where it should be, prehaps that is it?

No sign of this standing stone. Used GPS but still could find nothing.
There is a stone about 300mm high in a ditch but it doesnt look significant enough to me.

No sign of these standing stones, the field they should be in is now ploughed and there are a few stones in the ditch that may be field clearance or at least one of them look like they could an original stone.

This Ogham stone is meant to be down a cul-de-sac, no sign of it at the grid ref.

This standing stone is meant to be in behind some houses. As far as I could see its gone.

This is quite an out of the way spot, but what a revelation once you get there.Getting there isn’t particularly difficult with an o.s. map, as it’s all on public foot paths.The route I took up here takes you past the remains of the earthworks of the roman aqueduct into Dorchester. The alternative name for this place is the seven barrows, at first I could only see six, and indeed could only photograph six. Four of the six visible are similar sized, with two low bowl types.The seventh barrow is in dense undergrowth in an adjacent copse, I could see it through the trees, it is of a similar size to the four bowl barrows I did take pictures of. This place is off the beaten track and I had it completely to myself, to the north can be seen the high chalk downland , which contains sites of ancient settlement, some of which I will walk again soon and put on T.M.A.
Very close to these barrows is The New Barn Field Centre , which has a reconstruction of an Iron age round house and gives demonstrations of ancient pottery making.

There are 3 cairns marked on OS sheet 62 at Colvinstown Upper. The Arch. Inventory of Co. Wicklow says they are all on a steep NW facing slope of the hill. Well, one is and the other 2 are more west-south-west. The largest and best preserved (the main one of this site) was not located by the inventory people back in 1989 due to heavy forestation. No more. The forestry have been at their task and in the process have made an unholy mess, practically destroying the 2 lesser cairns. They are a shambles and a disgrace. Would they do the same to Kilranelagh graveyard at the western foot of the hill?
We approached the scene of devastation from the tracks on the northern side of the hill, after spending a while at Boleycarrigeen stone circle. We circled around to the south first and spotted the main cairn up above the gorse line. It’s a long cairn, about 25 metres on it’s longer axis. It looks to have been robbed out quite some time ago, with some of the structural stones of its burial cist visible in a depression on its eastern side.
The views from here to the flat plain to the south and over west to the Pinnacle on Baltinglass Hill are lovely. I couldn’t help wondering at the significance of the placing of all 3 cairns, with the passage grave cemetery on Baltinglass Hill such a prominent visual feature.
The other 2 cairns are now a shadow of their former past. The most southerly and easterly, Colvinstown Upper III, may not last much longer. It’s a flattened dumping ground. Colvinstown Upper II shows some remains of its burial cist, but the forestry made a grievious error years back when they decided to plant pine trees in the mound.
All the forestry hereabouts has been cleared recently, and though not all the damage to these cairns is of a recent vintage, major damage has been caused in the last year due, I’d guess, to a callous indifference and an ignorance of our ancient past. This even goes so far as planting new trees on each of the 3 cairns.

GPS: V76703 77430

I could just about see this site from the road , it’s in a small copse. Sadly it was a bit too overgrown to take a photo of from the distance I was away from it.

Had a walk along the footpath here this afternoon , but sadly couldn’t see the barrow , which I think must be over the crest of a hill. I will try to see this barrow again at some stage , but I don’t like tresspassing as a rule , so I will have find out whose land it is and get permission.

What does one say about a site like this? Another of Hampshire’s “lost” Long Barrows. Unvisited, unloved and almost inaccessible later in the growing season because of the waist high stinging nettles. Partly trashed in the past by a small quarry at the NW end and a track over the centre and rabbit/badger burrows at the SE end. Photographic recording of sites like this is important, boring though the images may be, as ancient barrows like this can so easily be lost.

As a case in point, my old (1976) 1: 25,000 OS Map (SU42/52) shows clearly a fenced Long Barrow a couple of hundred meters to the SE.
Later maps and a site visit show no traces. What has happened to it in the past 30 years?

Access Private woodland but footpaths close by.

Found this while trying to compose a straight landscape shot after giving up on finding any rock art in the area. Lined up two upright stones and this to get a shot of some weak sun breaking through in the gap on the horizon when I caught a glimpse of one cup and ring from the corner of my eye! There’s definitely two cups with single rings and some possible stuff beside them but very dubious. In the vicinity of one ‘rock art’ dot in the OS map.

I’m naming it panel D since it was the fourth I found today, will try and locate proper details.

My GPS reading for this panel: V76615 77599

This is a nice spot...on a steep sided hillside south of Ashbourne overlooking the river Henmoor. Fine views out over Ashbourne to the hills of Bunster and Thorpe Cloud at the mouth of Dove Dale.

The O.S map marks the mound as a tumulus, although John Barnatt notes it as only a possible example in his ‘Barrow Corpus’. There are no recorded excavations.